GB1140966A - A machine for charging with a material a succession of containers each having a filling opening and for sealing each of them with a plug member when it has been charged - Google Patents

Abstract

1,140,966. Filling and closing collapsible containers; reciprocating conveyers. BROWN, DAVIDSON & CO. Ltd. 3 Nov., 1967 [9 Nov., 1966], No. 50331/66. Headings B8A, B8S and B8T. A plastics tube (1) carrying an apertured cap (3) is raised on a support below a filling opening 15 and filled, e.g. with liquid or a mastic composition, under control of a valve 17, and closed by means of a plastics plug 5 supplied into the path of a plunger 19, means being provided to sense the absence of a plug 5 below the plunger 19, and in that case to prevent the opening of the valve 17. Six support devices are mounted on a horizontal turntable (80), Fig. 18 (not shown), which rotates so that tubes are filled in turn from a single filler. After the plug 5 has been pushed into the position shown in Fig. 5 by the plunger 19, the tube (1) is evacuated through the passages 15, 18 by a vacuum pump, and the plunger 18 is then lowered, pushing the plug 5 downwards until it closes the passage 18. Delivery valve 17 then opens to fill the tube (1), which is closed when the plunger 19 pushes the plug 5 into the opening (4) in the cap. Movement of the plunger 19 is controlled by a three-stage pneumatic piston and cylinder arrangement, Fig. 6 (not shown). Supply of sealing plugs.-Plugs 5 are fed into a recess (42), Fig. 10 (not shown), in the body 14, Fig. 7, of a plug transporting device by a vibrator bowl feeder (not shown) and a helical passage (43), Fig. 11 (not shown), which turns them through 180 degrees as they fall under gravity into the recess. They are then pushed singly by a pneumatically operated rod (40) along a horizontal passage (41) into a space between gripping fingers 39 located at the end of a cylindrical member 32. A pneumatically driven rod 34 then pushes each plug 5 into alignment with the rod 19, turning the plugs through 90 degrees owing to the action of a fixed pin 38 co-operating with a groove 35 in the member 32. Before the leading plug 5 of a series is pushed into the passage (41), Fig. 12 (not shown), the following one is prevented from falling into the recess (42) by a screw (45) engaging in the end (6) of the plug and pressing it against the body (14) of the transport device whose action is controlled by a spring mechanism (48). A sensing device, Fig. 13 (not shown) ensures that filling can commence only when a plug 5 is ready to seal the tube; a plug 5, if present, displaces a screw (51) whose movement is transmitted via a lever (52) to another screw (53) which actuates a pneumatic valve or electrical device controlling the delivery valve 17. The delivery valve 17 comprises a rod 54 with a semi-circular recess 52, and an annular ring 54A supported by perforated rings 55 in a chamber 53 which opens into a duct 16. A link 56 can move the rod 54 axially so that the ring 54A forms a seal against the outlet to the duct 16, valve 17 thus closing. The semicircular surface 52 of the rod co-operates with the body 14 to provide a cylindrical passage through which a plug can pass, Fig. 15 (not shown). A rotary valve 57 allows alternate filling of a metering cylinder 58 from a hopper or pump 60 and discharging of the measured quantity of fluid into the valve mechanism 17 and hence to the tube 1 through duct 16 and passage 15. A stop controlling the stroke of the piston 59 can be adjusted manually to control the amount of fluid entering the tube 1. An alternative sensing device prevents filling of the tube when a plug is not in position: when a socket portion (63), Fig. 16 (not shown), of the space between the fingers (39) of the plug transporting mechanism does not carry a plug, the end (64) of a rod (65) is urged into it by a spring mechanism. A spigot (68) closes a passage (69) between two chambers (70), (71) when the rod is displaced by a plug, and this interrupts a flow of compressed air entering chamber (71) and exhausting from chamber (70). A diaphragm valve is operated by the pressure build-up in chamber (71) and this causes the piston 62, Fig. 14, to be actuated, allowing the valve 17 to open.